The invention concerns a floor-bound transportation vehicle, in particular for the transportation of containers, with at least one lifting platform, arranged on a vehicle frame of the transportation vehicle, and at least one lifting drive which can raise the lifting platform(s) from a lowered transportation position into a raised transfer position and can lower the lifting platform(s) from the transfer position to the transportation position.
A system for loading and unloading a ship with containers is already known from European patent EP 0 302 569 B1. This system involves at least one dockside crane for loading and unloading the container ship moored fast to a dock. The containers are picked up from a transportation vehicle by means of the dock cranes or the containers are set down on this transportation vehicle. This transportation vehicle can travel along the dock without the use of rails and is automatically driven by a control system. The container is unloaded from the transportation vehicle or picked up from the transportation vehicle at a transfer station. This transfer station basically consists of stationary support tables, on which the containers are set down and from which the containers are picked up. These support tables are in the form of a support arm and they support the container from below in the region of its lengthwise sides. Accordingly, the spacing between adjacent support tables is narrower than the width of the container. In order to be able to pick up or set down the container on the support table, the transportation vehicle has a platform for the transport of the container, either the transportation vehicle as a whole or only its platform is raised in order to transfer a container and then the transportation vehicle with container now resting on its platform is driven out from the zone of the support tables. When using a platform which can be raised and lowered, the platform needs to be lowered again for the subsequent drive of the transportation vehicle. The setting down of a container on the support table occurs in the opposite sequence.
The lifting platform has a width which is less than the distance between the opposite-lying support tables so that the transportation vehicle can pick up the container from the transfer station. The containers are then picked up from the transfer station by a gantry crane in an automatic operation and set down in a container storage depot. At the end of the container storage depot opposite the seaside gantry crane there is provided another landside gantry crane, which can be operated in the area of the container storage depot in automatic mode and outside the container storage depot in manual mode. This landside gantry crane also has a turntable in order to turn the container by 90 degrees and then hand it off to, or retrieving from, land vehicles for transport to and from the depot. Furthermore, in regard to the transportation vehicle, it is stated that the platform can be raised and lowered by a mechanical, pneumatic or hydraulic lifting drive.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,449,863 concerns a floor-bound transportation vehicle for placement of bombs beneath the support surfaces of airplanes. This transportation vehicle has a lifting device with a lifting table to accommodate the bombs. Looking in the driving direction of the transportation vehicle, the lifting table is supported in front and behind by a toggle lever on the transportation vehicle. In order to raise the lifting table from a lowered transport position into a raised transfer position, each of the toggle levers is connected by a hydraulic cylinder to the transportation vehicle. Each of the hydraulic cylinders can be manually activated by manual pumps Since two hydraulic cylinders independent of each other can be provided, the lifting table can be raised into a transfer position that is tilted up to +/−15 degrees. Furthermore, the lifting table is guided on the vehicle by a longitudinal control arm.
From the U.S. Pat. No. 5,525,019 a vehicle for loading general cargo into airplanes is known. This vehicle has, in typical fashion, a driver's station and a platform for the cargo being loaded. The platform for the cargo can be raised from a transport position to a transfer position via a scissors lift table. The driver's station next to this platform can likewise be raised and lowered via its own lifting table by means of a scissors lift.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,319,932 concerns a trailer with a platform which can be raised and lowered, in order to transport cargo on pallets to or from a cargo airplane, for example. The trailer consists essentially of a running gear with wheels on which the platform is secured by means of two front toggle levers and two rear toggle levers. These toggle levers should also enable a tilting of the normally horizontal platform. From a front view of the trailer one notices that the rear right and left toggle levers are spaced apart from each other and each have their own support base, corresponding to around one-tenth of the width of the platform. Furthermore, the individual toggle levers consist, for example, of upper arms which are arranged with a spacing from each other for each toggle lever in itself. Thus, on the whole, the width of the arms is only a fraction of the width of the platform.